Time to take another look at Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’

Above: Kurt Russell stars in the 1982 John Carpenter movie "The Thing." (Photo/Universal Pictures)

Here’s a bit of movie trivia for you: What actor played the creature in the 1951 sci-fi/horror film “The Thing From Another World”?

No cheating by looking on IMDb.com. (I’ll provide the answer at the bottom.)

Anyway, that film was directed by Christian Nyby, with – according to Wikipedia – considerable assistance from Howard Hawks. And it is a classic of the genre.

The movie, of course, involves an Artic expedition that discovers something frozen in ice that turns out to be an alien being that then proceeds to devour the expedition members one by one – until they figure out a way to defeat it.

In 1982 John Carpenter took a shot at remaking the story. Already a success for having directed “Assault on Precinct 13,” “Escape From New York” and, most notably, the original “Halloween,” Carpenter made the most of 1980s technology to upgrade the 1951 version’s special effects.

He also upgraded the casting, opting for Kurt Russell to play the lead – and either some of the rest of the case (including Keith David, Wilford Brimley and Richard Masur) to play the alien creature … or just a bunch of makeup.

And with screenwriter Bill Lancaster updating the story, he took a far darker view of the whole storyline. No happy ending for the man who gave us Michael Myers. Which, of course, was likely one of the reasons why the film didn't particularly thrill either the movie critics or fans of the day.

It is that version of the story, simply titled "The Thing" and based on a 1938 John W. Campbell novella titled “Who Goes There?” that will screen in a special 40th Anniversary program on Sunday and Wednesday at two area Regal Cinemas theaters: Northtown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium.

Sunday’s screening will be at 3 and 7 p.m. (3 only at Riverstone), Wednesday’s at 7. The program will include a making-of documentary titled “Terror Takes Shape.” 

(Oh and who played the alien creature in the 1951 film? None other than a then-unknown James Arness, who would go on to great fame as Matt Dillon in the long-running TV Western “Gunsmoke.”)